


What's your damage, Heather? Be more chill!

by Legaloranges



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Crossover, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, F/M, M/M, also michael and martha, based off of another fic, but yeah they are, i mean not really - Freeform, jeremy and veronica as best friends, only a few people have squips tho, veronica gets a squip too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2018-11-17 07:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11270649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legaloranges/pseuds/Legaloranges
Summary: Blue High School nerd becomes cool because of an outside source.(which one?)both.Generic title is generic and unoriginal





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [God, Jeremy Heere, What's Your Damage?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087832) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



"C'mon," Jeremy mumbled, hitting his laptop in frustration. "Go!" He whisper-shouted. It was 8 am, and Jeremy was sitting at his desk, feeling more and more uncomfortable as seconds ticked by. This was normal, but not any less unwanted. Eventually, he gave up, not willing to wait any longer. He slammed his laptop shut, leaving the incognito tab open.

Instead of greeting his parents and eating a normal breakfast like a normal kid his age, Jeremy ran to the living room only to see his father, on the couch, of course, with no pants on. Jeremy tried to run out without being noticed, but that failed.

"'Mornin', Jeremy!" Mr.Heere exclaimed from his place on the couch.

"Hey, dad... Have you uh, have you thought of maybe putting on some pants?" Jeremy asked quietly. His father scoffed.

"I'm working from home today! I don't need pants!" Jeremy groaned.

"Just... When I get home, please have pants on. Please?" Jeremy asked hopefully.

"No way, Jeremy! Now, you better go before you're late!" Jeremy's father warned. With that, Jeremy nodded and basically bolted out of the house.

Only a minute later, however, Jeremy was stopped again. He didn't know if he wanted to take the bus, or walk to school. This made him nervous, causing his face and the tip of his ears to go red.

He decided on the bus.

Which, of course, was crowded. Wonderful. He passed a girl with a coat and scarf on, some edgy girl, until he decided on a seat near Brooke, Chloe and Jenna, a few of the most popular girls in school. What were the odds that they were on the bus that day? Since he had nothing better to do, Jeremy decided on eavesdropping on their conversation.

"So Jenna Rollan said Madeline told Jake, 'I'll only have sex with you if you beat me at pool,' and she _lost_ at pool! _Deliberately_. " Chloe smiled as she told her story.

"That is so awesome!" Brooke exclaimed, smiling.

Chloe glared at her. "Brooke!"

Brooke tucked a piece of hair behind her ear before quickly saying, "I-I mean slutty!"

Jenna continued the story for Chloe. "And then , Madeline was all like-"

 

"I'm telling the story, Jenna!" Chloe yelled, making even Jeremy finch. Jenna noticed, and tapped Chloe on the shoulder, who turned around. "Oh my god," She whispered, leaning closer to her friends (were they actually friends?) as she still looked at Jeremy, a look of disgust on her face. "He is totally getting off on that!" She exclaimed, moving a seat behind her to get away from Jeremy. His face went red for a second time that morning. He'd be adding this to the humiliation sheet. Humiliation sheets were Jeremy's way of tracking how many times he'd been humiliated that day. They fill up really quickly.

Not too long after that, the bus pulled up to the school. Jeremy was about to get up, until, "Don't touch me, tall-ass!" It was Rich. Oh boy.

"I was just trying to get up-" Jeremy tried to explain, his face red again. Another event to add to the sheet. Suddenly, Jeremy was turned around, Rich muttering, "Don't move," to him. So he didn't. Rich allowed him to turn around, saying, "If you wash that out, I'll kill you." Jeremy nodded quickly, watching Rich run off to ask Jake about something.

Meanwhile, Veronica was already off the bus, watching Rich write "Riends" on a boy's backpack. Not too long after that, she saw a taller boy with "Boyf" written on his backpack. How could people who were so nice before be so cruel?

Sighing, Veronica made her way to class. Maybe she'd never understand. Maybe people could change once, and then they'd change again. Or maybe that was just bullshit she came up in hopes the Heathers wouldn't be such bitches.

Ah yes, the Heathers. There was Heather Mcnamara, the yellow one. She was the head cheerleader, not to mention her family was fucking loaded. Then there was Heather Duke, the green one. From what Veronica knew, she had little to no personality. And lastly, there was Heather Chandler. Also known as the biggest bitch. Maybe her color was red to let everyone know she was actually satan trapped in the body of a seventeen year old girl.

Veronica's day went slowly, so she was relieved when it was finally lunch. Her days usually went by quicker after lunch.

For the first time that day, when she'd bumped into someone, she was relieved. It was Martha. Her best friend since preschool, and maybe even before then. Before either of them said anything, though, the two watched Ram Sweeney knock down a poor kid's lunch tray. The other kid that was with him tried to stand taller. "What the fuck, dude?!" He yelled. Now everyone was watching.  
Usually, most people didn't say anything to Ram.

"Michael, no!" The tall kid yelled, looking around. His face was red.

"Shut up, and let me stand up for you," The shorter kid, Michael, said. "Anyways, back to what I was saying! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Veronica had just now realized that these were the two boys who Rich had written "Boyf riends" on their backpacks.

Then, Kurt stood behind Ram. "I thought there were no GAYS allowed in the cafeteria." The taller boy's face got somehow even more red.

"WE'RE NOT DATING!!" He yelled.

"Yeah! And, if anything, Kurt, you and Ram are the gay ones here." Michael stated, crossing his arms.

Then, Rich stood up. "Hey, Michael, you told me you're _actually_ gay!" Michael looked completely shut down. He looked to Rich, a pained and hurt look in his eyes. He looked back to the tall kid, who looked nervous, maybe as nervous as Michael. With that, Michael ran out of the cafeteria.

"MICHAEL!" The other boy yelled, following after Michael.

"Yeah, go chase after your boyfriend!" Ram yelled, making the boy freeze. Was he really going to not comfort his friend because of one of Ram's dumb comments?

Yes, he was. The other boy made his way back to a seat and sat down. Poor Michael.

Martha turned back to Veronica. "Wow," She whispered. "That was awful." Veronica nodded.

"Yeah. And then the tall one didn't even go to comfort Michael," Veronica mumbled, looking at the tall boy again. "Anyways..."

Martha's face brightened again. "You on for movie night?" She asked.

"Hell yeah! You're on popcorn duty." Veronica smiled. Martha was the only person Veronica knew who somehow still had Jiffy Pop. They stopped selling that years ago.

"We're watching, 'The Princess Bride!"" Martha giggled.

"Wait, again? Don't you like, have it memorized by now?"

"Every word," Veronica laughed. "But hey, I love happy endings!"

The two walked to where Tall Boy was sitting. Well, still was sitting. "Mind if we sit here? It's the only few seats left." Veronica asked. The boy scrambled to cover a paper, face red again.

"Uh, yeah," He said, voice cracking. "I-I mean, go ahead." He corrected, trying to sound cooler.

"Sweet, thanks." Veronica smiled, sitting down.

"What's that?" Martha asked, pointing to the piece of paper the boy desperately tried to hide.

"I- uh," Martha suddenly took the paper from under his arms. "Hey!" He yelled.

"'Humiliation sheet?'" Martha asked. She looked up from the paper to look at the poor kid. "That's that mean?"

"It's-it's uh, a paper that like, kinda logs how many times I can like, get humiliated in one day." The boy explained quietly, playing with the sleeves of his cardigan.

"There's uh- There's a lot of tallies on that sheet." Veronica pointed out. The Boy shrank a bit.

"Y-yeah," He cleared his throat, sitting up. "Can I have that back?"

Martha handed him the paper. "Hey, weren't you in my Science?"

The boy nodded.

"You're Jeremy Heere?" Martha asked, giggling. He nodded.

"Wait, you mean your last name is actually Heere?" Veronica asked through giggles.

Jeremy groaned, then nodded. "YEs," His voice cracked. "My name is actually Jeremiah Heere."

“Well, I’m Martha Dunnstock,” Martha held her hand out for Jeremy to shake. Hesitantly, he shook her hand.

“And I’m Veronica Sawyer.” Veronica smiled at Jeremy, who gave a small smile back. “So, what was up with your friend?”

Jeremy looked nervous. “Michael? I- uh, I shouldn’t say…” He stuttered, rubbing his thumbs together.

Martha and Veronica shared a look. Veronica cleared her throat. “It seems that he, as like, Rich, that short kid, uh,” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Outed him. In front of everyone.”

Jeremy nodded. “Yeah… Him and Rich used to be good friends, but then.. I dunno, something changed. So, that’s why he knew.”

“Well, if you see him later, you should give him a hug or something. Make him feel a bit better.” Martha suggested softly. Jeremy smiled.

“Yeah, I will.”

The three didn’t talk much after that, but the silence was a comfortable silence.

Then, the bell rang. The three went the separate ways. When Veronica arrived at her destination, she almost ran out.

The Heathers were just hanging in the bathroom. Veronica decided on hiding, instead of speaking to them. They didn’t leave by the time the late bell rang, making Veronica almost groan.

Then, she heard one of the Heathers vomiting. Duke, probably.

“Grow up, Heather! Bulimia is _so_ two years ago!” The voice Veronica recognized as Heather Chandler’s called out to Duke.

“Maybe you should see a doctor, Heather,” Mcnamara suggested softly.

“Yeah, Heather,” Duke said, clearly being sarcastic. “Maybe I should.”

Just then, Ms.Fleming entered, completely ignoring Veronica. “Ah, Heather and Heather,” She sounded too happy. Duke then vomited again. “...And Heather. Perhaps you didn’t hear the bell over all the vomiting? You’re late to class.”

“Heather wasn’t feeling well!” Chandler explained in her all-too-innocent voice. “We’re helping her!”

Ms.Fleming didn’t believe it. “Not without a hall pass, you’re not. Week’s detention!”

Veronica quickly scribbled a forged hall pass in her diary, ripping it out. “Uh, actually! Ms.Fleming, all four of us are out.. On a hall pass… yearbook committee.” She hoped it was believable. Ms.Fleming seemed to buy it.

“I see you’re all listed.” Sighing, Ms.Fleming gave Veronica the fake hall pass back. “Hurry up and get where you’re going.” And with that, she left.

Chandler snatched the note from Veronica. She inspected it, the other two Heathers leaning over her shoulder. When did Duke leave the stall? “This is an excellent forgery,” Chandler said, seemingly impressed. She then looked at Veronica, eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

“Uh!” Veronica started, wiping sweat off her hand before holding it out. “Veronica. Sawyer.” When none of the Heathers shook her hand, she put it back down. “I crave a boon.”

Chandler raised a brow, putting a hand on her hip. “What boon?”

“I- uh, let me sit at your table at lunch? No talking necessary. It’s just- if people think you guys tolerate me, they’ll leave me alone.” Veronica said quickly, sweating. The Heathers just laughed. “I uh, also do report cards, permission slips, and absence notes.” She added.

Duke spoke up. “How about prescriptions?” She asked.

Chandler glared at her from over the shoulder. “Shut up heather!”

Duke seemed to shrink a bit. “Sorry, Heather.”

Chandler turned back to Veronica, looking her up and down. “For a greasy little nobody, you do have good bone structure.”

McNamara stepped forward, grabbing Veronica’s face to inspect it. “And a symmetrical face.” She mimicked something cutting Veronica’s face in half. “If I took a meat cleaver down the center of your skull, I’d have matching halves.” She stepped back. She nodded to the other two girls. “That’s very important.”

Duke had her arms crossed. “Of course you could stand to lose a few pounds.” Chandler glared at her again, making Duke shrink again.

Chandler smiled. “And you know, girls, this could be beautiful.” She walked around Veronica. She squished Veronica’s cheeks. “Get this girl some blush, and Heather, I need your brush!” McNamara nodded at that, running to her make-up bag. “Let’s make her beautiful.”

“Make her beautiful!” The two other girls joined in.

“Okay?”

Veronica nodded. “Okay!”


	2. Chapter two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica??? cool?? WHAAAAT??  
> (aka, Veronica starts showing signs of slowly detaching from Martha. already)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woah this sucks sorry  
> i wanted veronica to get a squip too, so :^))

The next day at lunch, Jeremy was telling Michael about Martha and Veronica as they walked to the table they’d sat at yesterday. “I dunno if they’ll sit with us again, but-” Jeremy bumped into Martha. “OW! Matha!” 

 

Martha smiled. “Hey, Jeremy!” She smiled widely. “Sorry for bumping into you! Is this Michael?” She asked, pointing at Michael. 

 

“That would be I,” Michael said, his hands in his hoodie pockets. 

 

Martha waved at him. “So, Jeremy, I haven't seen Veronica all day. Have you?” 

 

Jeremy shook his head. “I thought she got a ride with you or something.” Martha looked down, disappointed. 

 

“Oh, okay. Well, tell me if-” 

 

“WHO’S THAT WITH THE HEATHERS?!” Someone yelled across the lunchroom, making the three turn their heads towards the door. 

 

In walked the familiar red, green, and yellow outfitted girls. Behind them, was an excited- 

 

“Veronica?!” Martha yelled. She couldn’t believe that Veronica was with the Heathers now. 

 

Veronica smiled at Martha before running over. “Hey!” 

 

“Wow, Veronica, you look really beautiful!” Martha grinned. 

 

Veronica nodded. “Yeah! The Heathers gave me a makeover. I should’ve told you about that, though, so, sorry.” 

 

“No, no!” Martha shook her head. “It’s fine! You don’t have to tell me everything!” 

 

Veronica bit the inside of her cheek, still smiling. The Heathers could kill her for just talking to Martha. 

 

“Hey, so, even though you’re with the Heathers or whatever, do you wanna sit with us still?” Jeremy asked. Veronica hadn’t even noticed him. He just blended in with his surroundings. 

 

Veronica was going to say no, but decided she could sit with them for a bit. “Yeah, sure!” And with that, the four made their way to a table. 

 

Almost the whole time they all sat together, Veronica was staring at the Heathers, who didn’t seem to notice her absence. Thank god. Veronica tuned back into Jeremy’s story. 

 

“...And so, after play rehearsal, Rich told me about these pills you take to make you cool! Like, it’s a supercomputer programmed to make you cool!” Jeremy was beaming as he told everyone this. “It’s only like six hundred bucks, which is a pretty good deal when you think about it. What do you guys think?” He finished. Michael looked skeptical. 

 

“Jeremy, you don’t need to be cool,” Michael started softly before wrapping his arm around Jeremy’s torso and pulling him closer. “You’re already the coolest to me!” 

 

“You don’t count!” Jeremy insisted. “Martha, Veronica, what do you think?” 

 

Martha shook her head. “You shouldn’t need a computer to help you to be cool. Then you just wouldn’t be yourself.” Veronica froze. Is that what she was doing by being with the Heathers? Was she just abandoning her personality for popularity? 

 

Everyone was suddenly looking at Veronica. She quickly stuttered out a response. “I, uh, if you’re getting one, I’ll get one!” 

 

“VERONICA!” Veronica froze again after hearing Duke’s voice. “Heather says to get to the table.” 

 

Veronica nodded, getting up. “Yeah, okay. See you guys.” She waved at the three and then left. 

 

“I already feel like this is going to end badly,” Michael said dryly. 

 

Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Veronica is popular _and_ can still hang out with us. This is good for her. I could do the same if I had a Squip!” 

 

Michael, who still had his arm around Jeremy, sighed. “Jere’, do you really think popularity is more important than anything? Like, you aren’t even listening to what your friends have to say.” Jeremy thought about this. 

 

“Listen, Michael,” Jeremy started, slightly leaning into Michael’s touch. “You’re my favorite person, and popularity wouldn’t change that. I swear.” 

 

Michael smirked. “Is it really true? Am I really your favowite pewson?” He giggled, Jeremy giggling soon after. 

 

“Yes! You are! No homo, dude, but I love you! In, like, a brotherly way!” With his other hand that wasn’t around Jeremy, Michael played with his hoodie string, smiling. 

 

There was a comfortable silence, until a voice rang out, “YOU GUYS!!” It was Martha. When had she left? “Guys!! Ram invited me to his party tonight!” 

 

Michael and Jeremy shared a look, before Jeremy spoke up. “Nice!! Are you gonna go?”

 

Martha nodded. “Yeah!! Are you guys going?” 

 

Jeremy looked at Michael, who shook his head. “Nah, I don’t really like parties all that much.” 

 

“And if he’s not going, I’m not going.” Jeremy decided. 

 

Martha frowned. “C’mon guys! This is your senior year! This is your last chance to go to a high school party! Isn’t that exciting?!” 

 

Michael decided that he couldn’t say no. “I guess you’re right. We’ll go, then.” 

 

Just then, shouting was heard elsewhere in the cafeteria. Ram, Kurt, and some edgy kid were fighting. Veronica was close by, clearly fascinated.

 

“We’re lucky yesterday didn’t end up like that.” Michael spoke up. 

 

“Yeah, but it’s not like our situation was any better. You got outed in front of everyone and had a panic attack in the bathroom.”  

 

“Thanks for reminding me, Jere.” 

 

Just as soon as the fight began, it was over. The edgy dude seemed to win. 

 

Not too long later, Veronica ran back to the table, still looking over at the boy. “Hey, guys.” She smiled. 

 

“Someone’s got a crush…” Jeremy said in a sing-song voice, making Michael laugh. Michael’s arm still didn’t leave Jeremy’s torso. 

 

Veronica rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” 

 

“Hey, so, Veronica, do you wanna like, go to the mall today and get Squips? You said you’d do it earlier.” Jeremy asked. 

 

“Ah, sorry, Jeremy, but I’m hanging out with the Heathers after school ‘till Ram’s party. I’m really sorry-” 

 

“I-I could bring two of them to the party! We could take ‘em there!” Jeremy said quickly.

 

Veronica shrugged. “Okay, but if we get arrested for drugs I’m blaming you.” She smiled. Jeremy did, too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Squip Enters + Do You Wanna Ride  
> thats right its a mainly jeremy centered chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> most italics are jeremy's thoughts, by the way. When it's a veronica centered chapter (when she gets a squip obviously) then it'll be veronica's thoughts.

After school that day, Martha, Michael and Jeremy all went to the mall together.  
“Thanks for coming with, you guys.” Jeremy said, genuinely thankful.

“I’m your ride so I had no choice.” Michael shrugged.

“You could’ve just said no!”

“I’m your best friend I can’t say no to you.” Michael smiled. Jeremy left it at that, and continued walking to the payless.

When they got to the payless, the only worker there was a sketchy looking dude at the counter. Jeremy slowly made his way to the counter.

“Hey…”

“Where’s the money?” The dude asked, catching Jeremy off guard.

“Uh, wha…?” Jeremy trailed off. Michael, who had his hood up, snickered behind him.

“You’re obviously here for a Squip. Where’s the four-hundred dollars?” Jeremy fished his hand into his pocket and pulled out eight-hundred of the twelve-hundred he had brought. Don’t ask how he got it. The worker took the money, pocketed it, and pulled out a shoebox full of the grey pills. He pulled two out. “Take it with mountain dew for the best results, and this is all illegal stuff, meaning, you can’t come crying to me if it malfunctions. And most importantly-” Suddenly, a girl walked in. “WE’RE SOLD OUT!” The dude yelled.

“Of shoes?” The girl asked. The dude suddenly slammed the shoebox shut and put it back under the counter. He left the counter and walked over to assist the girl.

“Wait, you were about to say something important!” Jeremy yelled.

“Oh, right,” The dude said. “NO REFUNDS!”

After that, the three left the Payless. “I think I’m gonna go get some mountain dew and take mine now,” Jeremy said, pointing to a vending machine. “We’ll meet at the food court in half an hour, right?” Michael nodded.

“If you need us though, we’ll be in the back room at Spencer’s.” He confirmed, walking off with Martha.

Jeremy made his way to the vending machine, and got two mountain dews. He then downed the Squip with a swig of mountain dew. Nothing happened.

“What a waste of eight-hundred bucks.” Jeremy mumbled to himself.

“Jeremy!” A familiar voice called out. Jeremy looked up to see Christine bounding towards him, Jake not too far behind.

“Hey, Christine!” Jeremy smiled. “And, uh, Jake.” He added, much less enthusiastic.

“I almost didn’t see you!”

“Yeah, you blend into your surroundings pretty well.” Jake added, clearly uninterested and annoyed that Christine was talking to Jeremy.

Jeremy ignored Jake. “So, uh-” Jeremy stopped mid-sentence due to the unbearable pain striking through his head. “OW!” He yelled. Christine looked concerned.

“Jeremy?” She asked, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder.

“AH!! WHAT THE HELL?!” He screamed. Christine pulled her arm back, still concerned. Suddenly, “MILD?!”

“Jeremy, what’s wrong?!” Christine was yelling.

“Dude! The freak’s freaking out!” Jake yelled, laughing. Christine turned around and glared at Jake.

A few seconds later, Jeremy was standing up straight again. “Wait, I’m fine, it’s all good.” He tried to smile reassuringly. Christine smiled back. She opened her mouth to say something, but then Jeremy was screaming again. He had to grab his head as he screamed.

A few moments later, Jeremy was fine again. And now, at least to him, a Keanu Reeves from 1990-something rip-off dude was standing near him. This must’ve been his Squip.

“Jeremy, are you okay?” Christine asked. Jeremy nodded. “Okay… I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.” She turned on her heel, Jake following her as they walked away.

Jeremy turned to the Squip next to him. “You… look like Keanu Reeves.” He mumbled.

“My default mode. Would you rather me pose as your best friend, Michael Mell?”

“No, no! That’s fine!” Jeremy insisted. “So, uh, can anyone else see you?”

The Squip shook it’s (his?) head. “No. I only exist in your mind. So, instead of talking to me outloud, simply think what you’d like to say.”

Jeremy grinned. “Like in X-Men!!” He yelled, causing a few people to look at him. He shrunk a bit. Another event to add to humiliation sheets.

“I can see this is going to be difficult.” The Squip rolled it’s eyes. “Anyways, you want to win the heart of Christine Canigula, correct?” Jeremy nodded. “Don’t nod at me either, Jeremy. Everyone sees you nodding at nothing.”

_oh, uh, sorry_

“There you go, Jeremy. You’re a natural already.” The Squip smiled.

_it’s nice to know you’re nice._

“Well i am here to assist you,” The Squip said. “And having you upset wouldn’t be optimal for you. is that correct?”

_yeah, I guess._

“By the way Jeremy, take your hands out of your pockets.” The Squip instructed. Jeremy did so. “Arch your back and puff out your chest.”

_why?_

“Because this way, you won’t look like you masturbate daily.”

_I don’t masturbate daily!_

“You can’t lie to me, Jeremy. I’m inside your brain.” The Squip rolled it’s eyes. “C’mon, we’re going to get you new clothes.”

_What? Why?_

“Don’t ask me why. I’m a supercomputer. I know all the things that females your age, including Christine, find attractive in a male.”

_Right, okay._

“Now, to a store.” The Squip led Jeremy to one of the stores popular kids usually shopped at. He felt awkward in there.

Just then, Jeremy felt a slight shock go up his spine. “Ow!” He whisper-shouted.

“You’re slouching.” The Squip said casually. “Now, take this shirt.” The Squip pointed to a shirt.

Jeremy picked it up.

_Eminem? Does anyone even like him?_

Who cares? Don't ask me questions. I am a supercomputer. I know what is good for you.” The Squip rolled his eyes. “Now, take the shirt and try to find one on your own.” The Squip stood off to the side while Jeremy grabbed a shirt. “That is a girl’s shirt.” He said casually.

Then, Brooke and Chloe showed up. “Jerry?” Chloe asked when she saw Jeremy.

“Uh, it’s actually Jeremy.” Jeremy stuttered awkwardly.

“Whatever,” Chloe waved him off. “You shop here?” She asked.

“Ah, yeah! All the time!” Jeremy said awkwardly. The Squip nudged him.

“Never!”

“Never! Is, uh, what I meant.” Jeremy smiled awkwardly.

“Greet the beta.” The Squip told Jeremy.

_What does that…?_

“Oh! Uh, hey, Brooke!”

“‘You look sexy.’”

_I CAN'T SAY THAT TO A HOT GIRL!_

“Don’t smile. Stare intensely. Speak like you don’t care about your own death.”

And Jeremy did that. “Lookin’ pretty sexy, Brooke.” The Squip had to drag his hand down his face at how terrible Jeremy was at this.

Instead of being creeped out, Brooke smiled. “Thanks.” She winked.

Chloe glared at Brooke for a second. “Is that a girl’s shirt?” She asked, on edge.

“No!”

“Yes!”  
“I mean, yes!” Jeremy corrected himself.

“Repeat after me.”

Jeremy followed the instruction. “I saw it in the window and I couldn’t dismiss. I was dating a girl, and she had a shirt just like this!” Jeremy held the shirt up, laughing awkwardly. “It’s still painful…” He added.

Chloe looked like she didn’t believe his story. Oh god, did the Squip fuck up? Would she know he was a total fake?

“Calm down, it’s fine.”

“And who was this mystery girl?” Chloe asked, arms crossed.

“I uh, you’ve probably never heard of her, sh-” Jeremy started. “I mean, Madeline!”

“WHAT?!” Chloe almost yelled.

“She’s French.” Jeremy smiled.

“Oh she is not French. She just pretends to be for attention!” Chloe insisted.

Brooke looked at Chloe for a second before looking back at Jeremy. “And Madeline broke up with you?”

“Yeah…” Jeremy started sadly.

“No!”

“I mean… I broke up with her, because she was cheating on me.” Jeremy corrected.

“God! She’s such a slut! What did I tell you?!” Chloe almost yelled.

“You’re better without her.” Brooke smiled at Jeremy. Jeremy liked her smile. It was genuine. He didn’t know that pretty popular girls could actually smile.

“Anyone would be! God, I hate her!” Chloe yelled, before going off into a rant. Jeremy didn’t pay attention, until the end. “Ugh, let’s just go.” Chloe was clearly annoyed.

“Brooke is going to offer you a ride,” The Squip told Jeremy. “It is imperative you accept.”

“So,” Brooke said. “Do you want a ride?”

When Jeremy didn’t answer, The Squip had to yell, “YES!”

“Yes,” Jeremy whispered, almost in a trance. “But I’m supposed to go meet up with my friends Michael and Martha…”

“Martha Dumptruck?” Brooke asked. Jeremy nodded. “Oh…”

“Jeremy. If this is going to work, you must do as I instruct.”

“Jeremy,” Brooke was talking again. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride? It’s not that big of a deal. We could get frozen yogurt, too.”

Jeremy shook his head. “I’m sorry, girls, but I really have to get going. Next time though. I promise.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She began walking away.

Brooke stayed back. She played with the sleeves of her sweater. “Hey, I know how you feel. My ex cheated on me, too.” She smiled a small smile at Jeremy.

“Brooke! Let’s _go._ ” Chloe yelled.

“Buh-bye!” Brooke giggled and ran off.

_That was amazing! Where’s Michael?! I gotta go-_

“Michael left.”

_How do you know?_

“I have access to the mall security cams. I told you to accept. That’s why you need to listen to me.”

_Right, sorry._

“Now let’s get you home. You have a party to get to.” The Squip smiled at Jeremy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thats right yall in this fanfic the squip isnt gonna tell jeremy that everything about him sucks bc,, im trying to make him more like book squip who is MUCH BETTER THAN MUSICAL SQUIP BTW  
> ALSO I JUST NOW NOTICED I POSTED THE CHAPTERS OUT OF ORDER IM A MESS


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 7/11, slushies, chandler, and a lil bit of boyf riends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> help its 3 am im listening to taylor swift and ideas are flowing out of me its problematic

Instead of leading Jeremy home, like it said it would, The Squip led Jeremy to the nearest 7/11. 

_What are we doing here?_

____

____

“Veronica is here. As well as Heather Chandler, who you know as the red Heather.” The Squip explained. “You need a ride to Ram’s party, and Michael most likely won’t want to speak to you since you ditched him at the mall. I will remind you to apologize to him at the party tonight.” Jeremy almost nodded but quickly remembered he couldn’t without looking like an idiot. 

Jeremy quickly spotted Veronica talking to the kid from the cafeteria earlier. 

_I don’t think I should go up to her right now._

____

____

“Why not?” 

_She’s talking to that kid and she seems really interested in him. I’ll bother them later._

____

____

“No. What you’re going to do is march over there and get a slushie. You can give it to Michael at the party as an apology.” 

_That’s actually a really good idea._

____

____

“I am aware. Now go.” 

Jeremy made his way to the slushie station, grabbing a cup and putting it under the red slushie dispenser. 

“Hey, Jeremy.” Veronica greeted. The other kid just looked at Jeremy with a focused look. 

“Hey, Veronica!” Jeremy smiled. “Who’s your friend?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows. 

Veronica snorted. “His name’s J.D.” J.D gave Jeremy a finger gun. Jeremy gave one back. 

“You like the cherry one the best, too?” J.D asked. Jeremy looked at the slushie he was putting the cap on. 

“Eh, not really. I like the blue one the best. This is for my best friend.” Jeremy grinned, before taking a sip of the slushie. 

“And you share straws with your best friend?” J.D asked. 

“Yeah, he doesn’t mind.” Jeremy shrugged. “Hey-” Suddenly, Heather Chandler was stomping into the 7/11, clearly pissed off. 

“VERONICA!” She screamed. 

“I gotta go, sorry.” Veronica told the boys. Jeremy nodded, still sipping the slushie. 

“Ask her for-” The Squip’s eyes suddenly were fully blue. Did it... Crash? 

“So I see.” J.D responded dully. 

“Corn nuts?” Chandler asked Veronica. 

“Yes, Heather, I got them.” She rolled her eyes. 

“Good. Wave bye-bye to ‘red dawn’ and.. Whoever this nerd is, and let’s go!” Chandler yelled. 

Jeremy heard the windows xp start up noise go off in his head, and The Squip blinked a few times, and its eyes were back to normal. “A ride!” He finished his sentence. 

Veronica was almost out the door before Jeremy ran up to her. “Hey! Veronica!” 

“Yeah?” She asked, walking out of the door. 

“Can I maybe get a ride with you and Heather?” Jeremy asked. 

Veronica tensed up. “I dunno, Jeremy. She’d probably say no…” 

“‘I can take a bit of rejection.’” 

“I can take a little bit of rejection.” Jeremy repeated after the Squip. 

Veronica sighed. “Okay, we’ll ask her. But if she says no, you aren’t allowed to beg.” 

“Understood.” Jeremy nodded once.

“Listen, Jeremy, I need you to follow _exactly _what I say. It is imperative if you want to earn Heather Chandler’s respect.”__

____

____

_Got it._

____

____

Veronica and Jeremy walked over to Heather’s car. 

“Hey, Veronica? Who the hell is this?” Heather asked, arms crossed. 

“This is-” 

Following the Squip’s orders, Jeremy said, “I’m Jeremy Heere. I know, my last name is fucking dumb.” 

“Damn right it is. Why are you here, Heere?” Heather laughed at her own joke. 

“I need a ride and my friend bailed on me,” Jeremy lied. “Honestly though, I’m surprised you even let me near your car let alone let me inside it.” 

Chandler just glared at Jeremy. “God, we’re already late enough. Just get in. Dont you dare even let your ass touch the seat or you’re dead.” 

“Understood.” 

The three got into the car, Jeremy in the back while Veronica and Heather were in the front. 

No one talked the entire time, and the silence was the most uncomfortable thing Jeremy had ever experienced. As seconds ticked by, Jeremy felt like hours were melting by. 

“You’re being dramatic.” The Squip told Jeremy. 

_No I am not. Being in a silent car with Heather Chandler is the scariest thing for me._

____

____

“You have worse things to be afraid of, Jeremy.” The Squip rolled its eyes. 

_Is there any way for me to shut you up?_

____

____

“Nope.” The Squip leaned more into the seat next to Jeremy. 

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the car pulled up to a pretty big house. Outside were people making out, red solo cups, a bra, and a few random passed out people. The party was in full swing. 

The three exited the car, Jeremy still feeling awkward. He let the two girls go off on their own, so he could go find Michael. 

That turned out to be difficult. Not only did Jeremy blend into his surroundings, but Michael seemed to as well. 

“Jeremy, make sure you don’t drink any alcohol while here.” 

_Why not?_

____

____

“It impairs me just as much as it impairs you.” 

_Okay, I won’t then. Do you know where Michael is?_

____

____

“Try the backyard.” 

Jeremy made his way to the back door. He stepped outside and scanned the small yard. “No Michael.” He said to himself. 

“Theres a small patio upstairs. He might be there.” 

Jeremy sighed, and made his way to the stairs, running up them. 

After opening almost every door, (and having to see so many different teenagers having sex) Jeremy found out which room had the patio on it. And sure enough, there Michael was, leaning on the fence, a joint in his mouth. 

“Michael!” Jeremy grinned. 

“Hey, Jeremy.” Michael said coolly. “Is that a slushie?” He asked, pointing at the slushie still in Jeremy’s hand. 

“Yeah! It’s for you, since I kind of ditched you at the mall earlier.” 

Michael took the slushie and smiled. “Thanks, Jeremy.” He took a sip. 

Jeremy then started leaning on the fence, staring at the sky. The stars were actually kind of viewable. A few moments later, Michael was leaning next to him, their hips barely touching, arms touching as they both leaned them on the fence. Jeremy felt like his skin was burning as it touched Michael’s. 

“What took you so long to get here?” Michael asked, not looking at Jeremy. 

“I had to get a ride from Heather Chandler…” Jeremy explained softly. 

“Shit, dude, seriously?!” Michael yelled. Jeremy nodded. “Damn! That’s cool, bro! You get her number?” 

Jeremy shook his head. “I’m not interested in her, idiot.” 

“Ah, right, you’ve got a big fat gay crush on Rich.” Michael rolled his eyes. 

“Where’d you get that idea?! He’s been bullying me this whole school year!” 

Michael frowned as he looked at the ground. “I dunno, it’s just-” Michael looked at Jeremy. “He tells you one thing and you completely disregard everything I say. It’s not fair, Jeremy. I’ve known you longer. I’ve _loved _you longer.” Michael ran a hand through his hair and shifted his weight. “Like, I’ve loved you as a best friend for years, and I don’t want to lose you because a cool guy gave you advice once.”__

____

____

Jeremy sighed. “Michael,” Jeremy grabbed Michael’s hand that was still on the fence. “Rich will _never _replace you. No one will.” When Jeremy looked at Michael’s face again, there were tears in his eyes.__

____

____

“You promise?” Michael whispered, voice cracking. Jeremy suddenly tightly hugged Michael, who hugged back. 

“I promise.” Jeremy whispered. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick shoutout to taylor swift for making music that makes me inspired to write


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jd and veronica fuck.  
> heather dies.  
> veronica's squip enters.  
> its a veronica centered chapter, folks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so apparently my ass cant decide if i want to name the chapters with the first letters of each word capitalized or not,,

Meanwhile, Veronica was yelling at Heather Chandler. “What the _HELL, _Heather?! What is your damage?!”__

____

____

Chandler stood there, hand on her hip. “You’re no fun, Veronica.” 

“God, Heather, none of this is fun! That’s it. I’m going back to civilian life. No more popularity for me.” Veronica turned around, but Chandler grabbed her arm, turned her around, and grabbed her face. 

“No way!” Chandler yelled. “You can’t just go on as a nobody anymore! On Monday, you’re going to be an ex-somebody! Not even your nerdy friends will touch you now! Transfer somewhere else, but no one at Middleburg is gonna let you play their games!” As she ranted, Heather was moving Veronica’s face, making Veronica feel sick to her stomach. 

So, as any logical person would do, Veronica threw up all over Chandler’s shoes. “WHAT THE FUCK, VERONICA!? I MADE YOU POPULAR, AND ALL I GET IN RETURN IS VOMIT?!” 

Veronica, wiping her lips, yelled, “Lick it up, baby, lick it up!” And with that, left. 

Michael and Jeremy ran outside where Veronica was walking down the street. “Veronica!” Jeremy yelled. Veronica turned around. 

“Oh, hey guys. You probably shouldn’t be seen with me…” Veronica mumbled, awkwardly rubbing her arms. 

“Yeah, we heard, but we’re already lame to the point where it doesn’t matter.” Michael shrugged. 

“Oh.” Veronica sighed. “Jeremy, did you bring that drug?” Jeremy nodded, and handed her The Squip he brought. Michael tossed her the mountain dew. He kept soda in his pockets sometimes. 

Veronica mumbled a quick, “Thanks.” before taking it. 

“It might take a while to work, just so you know.” Jeremy explained. Veronica nodded. 

“Alright, well, to kill time, I’m gonna go fuck J.D.” Veronica said suddenly, “See you guys.” Michael and Jeremy stood on the sidewalk, mouths wide open. 

“Well Goddamn.” Michael whispered. 

It took her a while, but eventually, Veronica found J.D’s house. Fuck yeah. She had to climb a tree to get to his window, and then he had to literally break his window with a rock, but it was worth it. 

“Veronica? How- How’d you get in here?” J.D asked, confused and embarrassed. 

“Shut up, we’re gonna fuck.” Veronica explained. 

J.D shrugged. “Alright-” he was cut off by Veronica abruptly crashing her lips into his. 

\-- i'm not writing sin you can go search smut fics for that you nasty-- 

The next morning, Veronica woke up in a cold sweat, screaming. J.D shot up next to her. “Veronica?! Veronica, what’s wrong?!” 

Veronica was holding her head, still screaming. “What the fuck?!” 

J.D grabbed Veronica’s shoulders. “VERONICA!” He yelled. Veronica was breathing heavily. What the fuck was that, and why was it so painful? “What happened?” 

“I-uh-bad dream.” Veronica explained quickly. Which, wasn’t really a lie. She had been having a nightmare before the pain started. “I gotta go apologize to Heather Chandler.” Veronica decided, getting up and putting her clothes back on. 

“Well I’m not letting you go alone.” J.D decided, getting up. He got his clothes on, too. 

Veronica sighed. “Thank you.” She whispered, quickly kissing J.D. 

The couple made their way to Heather’s house, which wasn’t actually that far away. Veronica let herself in, as well as into Heather’s room. 

“Heather?” Veronica asked softly. 

“What?” Chandler asked, clearly annoyed. 

“It’s Veronica. I wanted to apologize.” Veronica explained. 

Chandler sat up on her bed. “Hope you’ve got your kneepads. Get me something for this hangover and I’ll think about it.” Veronica nodded and ran to the kitchen. 

“The fuck helps a hangover?” Veronica asked J.D. Well, she was more talking to herself, but J.D took action anyways. 

J.D handed Veronica a cup, and grabbed all the ingredients for a cure to a hangover. “There you go.” 

“Damn. How many hangovers have you had?” Veronica asked, smirking. 

“None. My dad trained me well.” J.D explained. He grabbed drain cleaner from under the sink. “How about we give her this?” He asked. 

Veronica assumed he was joking. “Ha ha, very funny. But no, that would kill her.” 

“Exactly,” J.D was smiling. “And she wouldn’t have a hangover.” 

Veronica rolled her eyes. “She wouldn’t drink anything that looks like that, anyways.” 

J.D shrugged. “Okay? So we put it in a mug.” He grabbed a mug. “She wouldn't even know.” He poured the liquid into the mug. 

“You aren’t funny.” Veronica glared. 

J.D put his hands up in surrender. “I apologize.” 

“You better.” Veronica said, grabbing the mug J.D poured the drain cleaner into. 

J.D said nothing. 

Veronica brought the drink to Heather’s room, J.D following behind her. 

“Oh God, I hope you two didn’t fuck in my kitchen.” Heather said dramatically. “Anyways, now beg.” 

“Okay, so well, I think that last night, we both said things that-” 

“Oh no Veronica,” Heather cut Veronica off. “Get on your actual knees. Right here.” She smirked. 

“You can’t be serious,” Veronica said flatly. 

“Does it look like I’m kidding? On. Your. Knees.” Chandler took the mug from Veronica as she got on her knees. “Better. But, I still don't forgive you.” She smirked and took a sip of the drink. 

Then she started choking. 

“OH MY GOD,” Veronica yelled as Chandler collapsed. “HEATHER, PLEASE BE JOKING.” 

Heather was limp. “I don’t think she’s joking.” J.D whispered. 

“Oh my god, call 911! Hurry!” Veronica yelled. 

“Yeah it’s a little bit too late for that.” J.D said, still looking at Heather’s dead body. 

“I can’t believe I just killed my best friend.” Veronica said, running her hands through her hair. 

“Well, and your worst enemy.” J.D shrugged. 

“SAME DIFFERENCE!” Veronica yelled. 

“Is this a bad time?” Veronica heard a voice. It was Heather’s voice. Veronica looked up from Heather’s dead body, and there stood Heather, looking alive. 

“YES THIS IS A BAD TIME, HEATHER!” Veronica screamed. 

“Yikes, Veronica, sweetie, I’m in your brain. I’m not actually here.” Heather said, smirking. “I’m your Squip.” 

“You?” Veronica asked. J.D looked concerned. 

Heather nodded. “Think to me rather than talk to me. It’s more convenient that way.” 

_Oh, okay._

____

____

“Listen, Veronica, we need to write a suicide note or something so we don’t get caught.” J.D suggested. 

“He’s right y’know.” 

“Yeah, right, okay. I need a pen and paper.” Veronica held her hand out. J.D handed her a notepad and a pen. 

“I need you to write what I say.” Heather instructed. 

“Dear world,” Veronica said out loud just as Squip Heather did. 

“Believe it or not, I knew about fear, I knew the way loneliness stung. I hid behind smiles and crazy hot clothes,.I learned to kiss boys with my tongue.” 

“Oh, that’s good.” Squip Heather praised. 

Veronica continued. “But the world held me down. It weighed like a concrete prom queen crown.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah i changed a few things but deal with it.  
> also!! squip heather will not be helping veronica reach a goal. i hc that when squips are taken while the host is drunk, they cannot function properly, and take on the personality of whoever (or whatever, in Rich's case) they appear to be. When a host is on drugs and the host takes a squip??????? the squip is just mentally fucked and not intelligent enough to do anything to help the host lmao


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy confronts Veronica, and then gets an upgrade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im,,, so tired,, i actually wrote this chapter a week ago but never uploaded it

At school on Monday, everyone was talking about Heather’s ‘Suicide.’ The fact that she hadn’t actually killed herself and instead it was Veronica who killed her, made her feel sick to her stomach.

 

Jeremy came running up to her. “Hey, Veronica!” He smiled.

 

Veronica waved weakly, J.D by her side.

 

“Can we, uh, talk for a second?” Jeremy glared at J.D. “ _Alone?_ ” J.D glared for a second before simply walking away without a word.

 

Jeremy got serious. Veronica got worried. “Hey, Jeremy, what’s-”

 

“My Squip said you killed Heather.” Jeremy blurted out. Veronica went white.

 

Squip Heather put a hand over her mouth. “Well, FUCK me gently with a chainsaw!”

 

“No, I didn’t- she killed herself. You saw the note.” Veronica tried to explain.

 

Jeremy shook his head. “Right. Sorry. My Squip is probably just being dumb.” Jeremy laughed awkwardly.

 

“He knows, Veronica. His Squip is pretty intelligent. He wouldn’t be dumb.” Heather pointed out from beside Veronica.

 

Veronica glared at Squip Heather before turning back to Jeremy. “Listen, Jeremy,” Her voice became softer. “I did… Kill Heather Chandler.” Jeremy audibly gasped. “Unintentionally!” Veronica added, a bit too loudly.

 

Jeremy shook his head. “How do you unintentionally murder someone?” He asked.

 

“Well, uh, J.D made a joke of curing Heather’s hangover with drain cleaner which would kill her and he poured it into a mug and i grabbed that one by accident.” Veronica explained quickly.

 

“Why didn’t he tell you that you grabbed the wrong mug? I’m sorry, Veronica, but he gives me bad vibes. Maybe he wanted to murder Heather Chandler?” Jeremy was talking just as quickly as Veronica had been.

 

Veronica shook her head. “I don’t want to believe that,” She whispered. She locked eyes with J.D who wasn’t too far away. Maybe just out of earshot. “Listen, Jeremy, I gotta go. I’ll see you around. Please, don’t tell anyone what I did. Not even Michael.”

 

“I promise.” Jeremy assured as Veronica ran over to J.D.

 

“C’mon, Jeremy.” The voice of his Squip rang out in his head. “Don’t spend too much time worrying about them. Veronica is smart enough to realize what J.D is doing and she will stop him from doing anything else.”

 

_I guess you’re right._

 

Jeremy was making his way to play rehearsal without even realizing it.

 

“Think of the positive things that have happened today! You formed a bond with Rich, and now you’re going to play rehearsal with Christine, and I can see a future where you two end up having a nice-ending conversation.” Jeremy smiled at the idea.

 

Play rehearsal did not, in fact, end up well. Turns out, Christine has no interest in Jeremy. In fact, she’s in love with Jake. Go figure. The Squip informed Jeremy that the only way to get with Christine was to become popular. The only way to do that? Well, that leads to the current situation.

 

Jeremy was sitting behind the school with Brooke, who had dragged him out here since he was crying over… Eminem dying, he guessed, even though he couldn’t care less about Eminem.  

 

Brooke was grabbing Jeremy’s hands and talking sweetly to him, but he wasn’t paying attention. Weirdly enough, instead of thinking of Christine, or listening to the second most popular girl in school talking to him, Jeremy was wondering where Michael had been. He hadn’t seen him all day. Michael would’ve told him if he was sick or if he was going to ditch. He was becoming worried. The Squip shocked him, telling him to pay attention.

 

Eventually, Brooke got up. Jeremy didn’t know why, but he did, too. Brooke gave him a confused look, and left.

 

“She told you to stay there. She did not expect you to get up. You should really pay attention next time, Jeremy.”

 

Jeremy just nodded.

 

The Squip looked in thought for a moment before asking, “Jeremy, are you positive you want Christine?”

 

“What? Of course I am!” No one was around, so Jeremy thought it would be okay to talk out loud to his Squip.

 

“Are you gay, Jeremy? Is Christine simply a cover up?” The Squip asked. Jeremy felt his face heat up, and he looked at his shoes, which had become extremely interesting.

 

“Jeremy?” The Squip asked, softer this time. Jeremy looked up slightly. “Are you gay?”

 

Jeremy threw his hands up. “I dunno! You should know this stuff! You’re inside my fucking brain!” The Squip took a step back.

 

After blinking twice, the Squip simply nodded.

 

“What does that even mean?!” Jeremy was still yelling. Why was he getting so upset over the Squip asking if he was gay? Of course he wasn’t!

 

“I am going to go into a temporary shutdown so you can calm down.” The Squip simply stated. Before Jeremy could argue, it was gone.

 

Jeremy saw a blur of red in his peripheral vision. He looked over in that direction, and there he saw Michael, turning the corner. Jeremy basically ran to him. “MICHAEL!” He yelled, hugging his best friend, who was clearly surprised. Jeremy grabbed both of Michael’s arms to keep himself steady. He was overjoyed to see Michael. “Where have you been all day?”

 

Michael pushed Jeremy back, a hurt and angry expression on his face. Jeremy didn’t understand. “Oh, so you’re not the one who’s been avoiding me?” Jeremy blinked a few times.   


The Squip re-appeared. “It’s called optic nerve blocking. I have been blocking Michael from your field of vision.” It explained dryly, inspecting its fingernails casually. Jeremy noticed they were black. Were its fingernails always painted black?

 

_Wait, what?_

 

“Michael is a link to Jeremy 1.0. To upgrade, you must be willing to make sacrifices.”

 

“Seriously, dude! You’ve been acting shady ever since-” Michael stopped to think for a second. “...It worked, didn’t it?” He whispered. Michael then smiled. Jeremy felt so relieved to see him smile. “Jeremy! That’s amazing! We gotta test it out! We gotta celebrate! We gotta get stoned in my basement!” Michael was grinning. He looked so excited.

 

Jeremy _knew_ that taking the upgrade would make Michael hurt so badly. But on the other hand, Jeremy wanted Christine. The one person he’s had a crush on since freshman year.

 

He decided on taking the upgrade.

 

_Optic Nerve Blocking on._

 

And just like that, Michael was gone.

 

“Now… Let’s get to work.” The Squip put its hand on Jeremy’s back and led him away like a father would lead a son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> summer ends for me in less than a month so,,,,  
> after that im out for a bit  
> bc im gonna be a mcheckin highschooler and i,, am,, not,, ready,,


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Martha talk about their friends leaving them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a super short chapter!! i wrote most of this a few months ago, and added an ending to the chapter. I'll try to keep writing this fanfic because I do actually have a direction I want to move this fic.

To say Michael was upset was an understatement. He was fucking devastated. His best friend of what felt like forever just ditched him for popularity. 

 

He was sitting behind the school during lunch. Jeremy wasn’t hanging out with him, and he had no other friends, so this would have to do. He didn’t eat, and instead, was getting high. God, he felt pathetic. 

 

“Can I sit with you?” A girl’s voice rang out. Michael put his headphones around his neck and nodded. He wasn’t even listening to music. He just liked the way the headphones felt. “Is your best friend ignoring you, too?” The girl, who Michael realized was Martha, asked. 

 

Michael felt himself tear up simply at the question. “Yeah,” He responded, trying to stop his voice from cracking.

 

Martha sat down in the grass next to Michael. “Yeah, me too. Veronica hasn’t talked to me since Heather’s suicide. I guess it was pretty hard on her.” Martha shrugged. 

 

Michael leaned back so he was leaning on the wall. “Has she talked to you since Ram’s party?” 

 

Martha shook her head. “No. But, that’s probably because the Heathers warned her against talking to me.” 

 

Michael frowned. Martha didn’t deserve that. Maybe Michael deserved Jeremy ignoring him. Michael wasn’t even that good of a friend. Of course Jeremy left him for others. Michael wasn’t cool and that’s all Jeremy cared about. 

 

“Are you okay?” Martha asked, looking genuinely concerned. Michael appreciated that. Most people didn’t give a shit about Michael, but Martha did. 

 

“I don’t know,” Michael responded simply. He wasn’t lying. He didn’t know how he felt. Was he sad? Was he angry? A mixture of both? 

 

“Yeah I feel that. I don’t know how I feel either. Should I be mad at Veronica for not talking to me? Should I wallow in self pity? I’m not sure.” Martha explained. 

 

“I would be mad at Veronica if i was in your position. She stopped talking to you because what? She became friends with some more popular people? Boo hoo, she shouldn’t end a friendship with no warning just because she made some cooler, more popular friends. So what if they tell her not to talk to you? That’s not their business!” Michael ranted. 

 

Martha laughed to herself. “Michael, I think you’re mad at Jeremy, too.” 

 

Michael realized she was right. Yeah, he was mad at Jeremy. But he couldn’t even express his anger because he wouldn’t talk to him! Michael ran his hands down his face in frustration. Losing friends sucked. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for being inactive! I've been busy with marching band and school and the holidays just passed, so everything in my life is winding down. I hope you understand! I'll try to update this fic more often!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween party and some casual drama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A long chapter to make up for my absence!! About 2,000 words!!

The following day, Jeremy was at lunch with Rich, Jake, Brooke, etc. They didn’t sit at the same table, but definitely relatively close to the heathers and Veronica. 

 

“So Jeremy, are you going to Jake’s party tonight?” Rich asked Jeremy suddenly, making Jeremy jump. 

 

“ _ Cool it, _ ” The Squip hissed, grabbing Jeremy’s shoulders to keep him steady. 

 

“Uhm, Jake’s having a party?” Jeremy asked, more awkward than intended. 

 

“Yeah, duh, why else would I be asking if you were going?” Rich asked, clearly annoyed with Jeremy. 

 

“Right, right.” Jeremy tried to calm himself down. “I dunno, I’ll probably go.” 

 

“You will go, Jeremy.” The Squip told him. 

 

“I mean, yeah, I’ll go.” 

 

“Sweet!” Rich grinned. 

 

Considering that Rich has a Squip of his own, Jeremy is surprised to see how laid back Rich’s squip is with him. If Jeremy said “sweet” in conversation, he’d normally receive a shock from his Squip. But Rich? He gets nothing negative administered to him. 

 

“That’s because Rich’s Squip is aware of Rich’s life situation. You have no idea.”  The Squip explains. “And I can’t tell you. That wouldn’t be fair to Rich.” 

 

_ I guess. But I still don’t understand why Rich’s Squip doesn’t tell him what to do more often like you do to me.  _

 

“He does,” The Squip states. “You just can’t tell. It’s hard to tell, and it seems natural from an outside view.” 

 

Jeremy supposed that was true. He and Rich made their way to the table, where the rest of the ‘cool kids’ (sans Jake) were. 

 

Jeremy spotted Veronica at the heathers’ table. “Hey, guys, I’ll be right back.” He says, pointing to the heathers’ table. Rich gives him a thumbs up, eating his sandwich.

 

“So Duke and I are going on a double date with Kurt and Ram,” Mcnamara tells the other two girls. 

 

“I only said sure because if not, you’d whine about it.” Duke rolls her eyes, making Mcnamara slouch in her seat a bit. 

 

“Hey, Veronica!” The girls all turn when they see Jeremy coming their way. 

 

“Ew,” Duke whispers. Veronica glares. 

 

“Hey, Jeremy. What’s up?” Veronica greets. 

 

“Oh, uh, nothing, can i sit here?” Jeremy asks awkwardly. Man, where was his squip when he needed it? 

 

Veronica looked next to her. Of course no one was near her. No one dared try to sit with the heathers. “Yeah, sure!” She grinned, making Duke groan. 

 

“Veronica, we don’t need your nerdy friends here. Maybe you should ask how the rest of us think before you invite him to sit here.” Duke hisses, clearly disgusted. Veronica and Mcnamara clearly didn’t want to respond to that. Either that, or Veronica was trying to think of what to say. 

 

“Jeremy, repeat after me.” The Squip suddenly says. 

 

“Jeez, Duke, I didn’t realize you were at such a loss for a personality that you took on Chandler’s. And so close after her suicide? Not cool, man.” Jeremy says just as the Squip instructs. Duke opened her mouth to retort, but says nothing. Just crossed her arms and pouted. 

 

Jeremy took his seat. “Anyways, Veronica, are you going to Jake’s party tonight?” He asks. 

 

Veronica thinks for a bit. “I don’t have any plans. Nothing with J.D, i don’t think. So yea, i can probably go.” Jeremy smiles at that. At least someone he was friends with would be there. 

 

“Okay, cool! I’ll see you there, then!” Jeremy gets up, and walks back to his table. 

 

“Who was that?” A voice comes from behind Veronica. J.D. 

 

“You know Jeremy! Why?” Veronica asks. 

 

“I was just wondering. I didn’t remember him. He doesn’t have a very memorable persona.” J.D says dryly. 

 

Veronica rolls her eyes. “Whatever.” She waves him off. 

  
  


The rest of the day couldn’t go by any slower for Veronica. Tons of teachers and various students asking about Chandler. That had been two days ago! Why did people still care? 

  
  


Veronica ditched the bus. She decided she would walk. 

 

“A lot of people still care about me, huh?” Squip Heather says, hand on her chest. 

 

“Yep, lucky you. Only someone as impactful as you could ever be remembered so well.” Veronica says out loud. No one was paying attention to her anyways. 

 

Squip Heather went silent for a bit before speaking up, completely changing the subject. “I sense something bad will happen tonight.”

 

Veronica furrows her eyebrows. “How so?” She asks, hoping her voice isn’t laced with worry. 

 

“Well, I just feel like... “ Squip Heather trails off before waving her hand in midair. “It’s nothing. At least nothing you should worry about.” She decides, leaving Veronica on edge. What bad thing is going to happen? Should she not go to the party? Maybe something bad will happen to the Heathers. 

 

Jeremy, meanwhile, was hyped. “Man, I’m so excited for this party!” He says to himself in the mirror. Though, not to himself, obviously. To his Squip. 

 

“Yep! Maybe you’ll get a chance to talk to Christine. She’s here for Jake, afterall.” The Squip notes, smiling. Jeremy has almost never seen the Squip smile. It’s somehow both endearing and terrifying at the same time. 

 

“Yeah! Man, it’s been awhile since I’ve talked to Christine. I haven’t talked to her since… when she told me she liked Jake.” Jeremy hadn’t thought about how long it’d been. 

 

“Well, you’ll get to talk to her today, right? C’mon! Be more excited!” The squip put a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. 

 

“I am excited!” Jeremy insisted. 

 

“Well, it’s about time to go, and since I don’t think its optimal to walk, I suggest you take your father’s car. I’m sure he won’t mind.” The Squip stays enthusiastic. 

 

Jeremy simply nods, and makes his way to the living room where his father sits, watching T.V. “Hey, dad?” He asks quietly, in case he’s sleeping. 

 

“Yes, Jeremy?” His father greets. 

 

“Can I take your car… to a party..?” He asks, hoping for a yes. 

 

“Sure, whatever.” His father waves him off, clearly not caring. The Squip took notice of this. Perhaps Jeremy’s relationship with his father was more strained than he first thought. 

 

“Okay, cool. See ya, dad.” Jeremy says, taking the keys and leaving the house. He barely knew how to drive, and got his licence only recently, so this would be an adventure. 

 

“Don’t worry too  much about it. I’ll just control you while you drive so you don’t cause an accident.” The Squip butts in. 

 

“You can do that?” Jeremy asks, fascinated. 

 

“Yep. Just let me do my thing.” The Squip tells Jeremy. And suddenly, Jeremy can’t control what he’s doing. It’s like he’s in a trance. 

 

Before Jeremy is aware, he’s at Jake’s. The Squip allows him to have control again, and Jeremy gets out of the car, feeling fuzzy and strange.    
  
“Don’t think too much about it,” The Squip says, pushing Jeremy inside. 

 

Jeremy receives a phone call just before going inside. It’s from Veronica. 

 

“Hello?” He asks. 

 

“Hey, so I’m sorry if you’re already there, but I can’t make it to the party. Heathers emergency.” Veronica explains quickly, as if in a rush. 

 

“Oh, that’s alright. I’m sure I’ll survive. I’ll see you at school, though.” Jeremy says, almost sadly. 

 

“I’m sorry again. I gotta go, bye, Jeremy!” Veronica says before suddenly hanging up. Jeremy puts his phone back in his pocket, upset. 

 

“Hey, Jeremy, think on the bright side,” The Squip says, as he turns Jeremy’s head to look at Christine. “Christine is still here…” 

 

_ Right. Should I go talk to her?  _

 

“Of course! Why wouldn’t you? Go, go.” The Squip pushed Jeremy in Christine’s direction.

Before Jeremy got to Christine, Brooke came running to Jeremy. “Jeremy!” She yelled. 

“Jeremy, were you ignoring me? You didn’t answer my texts.” She frowned, clearly upset. 

“Ah, I’m sorry, I-” 

“No.” The Squip says. 

“I mean, um, my phone was dead.” Jeremy lied. 

“Oh. Well, um, what… what do you think of my costume?” Brooke asks, hopeful for a positive response. 

“Its.. original.” Jeremy says, making Brooke look even more upset than before. “I mean, it’s great! You look… great.” 

Brooke gives him a small smile. “I- I’ll get you a drink.” She says, running off. 

Jeremy watches Jake and Christine have a short conversation, ending with Christine walking off to a couch. Jeremy begins walking over to her, only for Chloe to stop him. 

“Jeremy, you need to come with me.” Is all she says as she begins to drag him off upstairs.

“Why?” He asks, looking back at Christine. 

“Because I said so!” She defends. 

They get upstairs, and Chloe leads Jeremy to a room before closing a door and locking it. 

“Why… are we up here?” He asks. “I should probably get back to Brooke.” 

“God, who cares about her! I’m here! Stay with me, Jeremy.” She says, pulling him to the bed. 

“I have to go, I’m sorry Chloe, but-”

_ I can’t move. Why can’t I- _

“You’re welcome.” The Squip says. 

“You know how Brooke acts all innocent? It’s an act. It’s how she gets the boys. That’s so sad, right?” Chloe rants. Jeremy has an epiphany. 

“You’re jealous of Brooke!” He yells. 

“What?! No! Why would I ever be jealous of her?” 

“Why would you even be jealous of her? You’re just as pretty as her.” Jeremy says, without thinking. Before Jeremy can think, Chloe kisses him out of nowhere. 

She only stops when she hears a knock. “Jeremy?” It’s Brooke. Chloe puts a finger to Jeremy’s lips. “Um, Jenna said she saw you and Chloe come up here..” Jeremy says nothing. Both him and Chloe hear footsteps leaving the direction of the room. 

“If Jenna saw, she’ll-” Jeremy starts, but Chloe cuts him off. 

“Jenna should mind her own  _ fucking  _ business!” She yells. 

“But Brooke will find out that’s-” 

“Just shut up! Okay?” Chloe yells, crossing her arms. Then another, much louder knock is heard. 

“Jeremy Heere?!” Jake. 

“Ooh, yay!! It’s time for the fun part!” Chloe claps her hands, excited. 

“You better not be having sex on my parent’s bed! If so, I’ll kill you!” Jake screams. 

“We’re not!” Jeremy yells, voice cracking. 

On the other hand, Veronica wasn’t having a much better time. Kurt and Ram begging her to have sex with them wasn’t a fun situation for her. 

“No! God, do you two have no morals?!” Veronica yells, leaving. She wasn’t going to deal with them. They were too frustrating. As she walked home in the cold October night, her Squip appeared. 

“Duke is going to tell everyone what happened.” Squip Heather says. “And something bad is going to happen from it.” 

“What do you mean?” Veronica asks. 

“I mean what I said.” Is the only answer Squip Heather gives. Veronica decided she wouldn’t press her. If Squip Heather was anything like normal Heather, she wouldn’t be getting a clear answer. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have tried to upload this chapter 3 times today and if this doesnt upload right im going to shoot myself in the head


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> False rumors and untrustworthy squips

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jesus fuck ive been inactive for a while I'm hella sorry

Once Veronica got home, she decided to call Jeremy and see if his night was any better. Maybe he was still there and she would be able to go to the party afterall?

 

“Hey.” Jeremy answered, clearly worn out.

 

“Hey. How was the party? Is it still going on?” Veronica asked, playing with the sleeves of her jacket.

 

“Hell if I know. I’m at home. It was… something.” Jeremy seemed to choose his words carefully.

 

“Ah.” Was all Veronica could say.

 

“How about whatever you were doing instead of going to the party? How was that?” Jeremy asked.

 

Veronica groaned. “Awful! Apparently there was some date-rape stuff going on with the Heathers, so Mcnamara thought it would be a great idea to volunteer me for it instead. I

had to deal with Kurt and Ram.”

 

“That sounds way worse than my night.”

 

“It probably was.” Veronica said, not quite feeling up to holding a conversation. “Hey, Jeremy, I’m gonna go to sleep. I’m tired and all that, so..”

 

“I get it! I get it! I’m tired, too. Night, then, Veronica.”

 

“Night.” Veronica hung up. She flopped back onto her bed, just about to fall asleep when, “Emergency.” Squip Heather.

 

“What..? It’s like, 2 in the morning.” Veronica mumbled to her Squip, wanting to sleep.

 

“Shut up and turn on the news.” Squip Heather commanded.

 

Veronica did what she was asked and looked at the screen, confused. “What is this?”

 

“That’s Jake’s house. The one who’s party Jeremy was at. It seems someone at the party set the house on fire.” Squip Heather said, interested.

 

“How did they get that on the news so fast..?” Veronica asked.

 

“Someone must have called the police. They don’t know who started it, but it seems to be intentional.” Squip Heather explained. Usually, Squip Heather acted similar to Chandler,

but now, she was almost a completely different person. Well, she wasn’t even a person. But that’s beyond the point. “Check twitter.” Squip Heather pulled Veronica out of her thoughts. Turns out, everyone was talking about Rich being in the hospital. Some saying he started the fire.

 

“But Rich seemed like a normal kid?” Veronica questioned mostly to herself. 

 

“He must’ve done it to-” Squip Heather stopped herself.

 

“To what?” Veronica asked.

 

“To nothing. I don’t know why he did it.” Squip Heather responded quickly.

 

“That’s… a bit scary, but… okay.” Veronica was skeptical. Anyone would. A computer implanted in her mind just said the most cryptic thing she’s ever heard, and now she won’t have a chance to know what she meant.

 

Jeremy, on the other hand, was dealing with the same situation.

 

“I don’t get it,” Jeremy says. “Why me? Why are you inside of me of all people? You could be controlling the fucking government! But you’re inside of a high school student it just doesn’t make sense.” Jeremy ranted, his squip invested.

 

“Jeremy, I’m getting the sense that you don’t trust me.” Was all his squip said in response.

 

Jeremy was frustrated. “Maybe I don’t! You have consistently treated me like human garbage and you drove away my best friend, and even now Christine still doesn’t want to date me! And now Brooke hates me! Everything keeps getting worse and worse, and it’s your fault!”

 

“But it isn’t my fault.” The squip said simply.

 

“Wh… what do you mean?” Jeremy asked slowly.

 

“Think about it! The reason that all this is happening has nothing to do with what I’m doing wrong. In fact, I can’t do anything wrong! These aren’t miscalculations, it’s human error! It’s all the human’s faults! The only way for you to get what you want, is for everyone to have squips.” The squip explained, finally giving Jeremy an answer.

 

Jeremy considered it. He didn’t say anything back to his squip, but his mind was running wild. His squip, however, said nothing. He let Jeremy sleep on it.

 

The next morning, at school, everyone had put flowers and post-it notes and such around Rich’s locker.

 

_You’d think he’s dead…_

 

“Yeah, you’d think that… People at this school overreact… they wouldn’t react like this if they had squips. They’d be so much more efficient.” The squip hinted at the idea of squipping more people. Jeremy rolled his eyes and ignored it, passing Rich’s locker and turning to the next hallway, only to find Veronica sobbing into J.D’s chest.

J.D seemed to be comforting her, so Jeremy didn’t want to intervene. His squip told him to anyways.

 

“Hey, Veronica, what happened?” Jeremy asked slowly, making J.D give him the nastiest glare he’s ever seen.

 

Veronica pulled away from J.D’s chest, but J.D’s arm stayed around her waist. “Oh, uh, nothing, just… Heather Duke spread some false rumors.” Veronica didn’t want to go into detail it seemed. “She’s an awful person.” She ended with that.

 

“Oh jeez, Veronica I’m… so sorry.” Jeremy whispered.

 

Veronica sniffed. “It’s whatever. Nothing you can do to fix it.”

 

Jeremy didn’t know what to say. He just nodded and awkwardly walked off, not looking back. But he could still feel J.D’s glare. What was that guy’s problem? He’s so possessive over Veronica.

  
Meanwhile, Veronica was crying over Duke, Ram and Kurt spreading rumors of her having a threesome with the two football players. JD was unusually silent and, unknown to Veronica, was planning something.

 

After school, the two headed to the seven eleven. Veronica noticed JD had some… questionable items. “Mineral water?” She asked, confused.

 

“I’ll explain later,” JD said cooly, making Veronica more confused.

 

When the two made it to JD’s house, which, wasn’t unusual, since his father couldn’t care less about who he brought over or what they did. Veronica had never seen JD’s room, though. It was pretty messy, but it was mostly clothes. Which surprised Veronica since JD wore the same outfit everyday of his life.

 

JD suddenly snapped his fingers. “Veronica,” He yelled, causing Veronica to flinch. JD was becoming more impatient with her, which she decided she’d address soon. Which is what she said last week. “Listen, I have an idea. We shoot Kurt and Ram with these bullets my grandad got in world war two, they basically make you pass out and break the skin so there’s blood, but you don’t die. Germans would fake their suicides with them, I guess. And we’ll place these gay items around them… to make it seem like they killed themselves for a suicide pact because they had to hide their gay love. What do you think?”

Veronica didn’t like the idea. But if they weren’t actually going to get hurt…. It couldn’t be that bad, right? “I’m assuming I’ll have to write the note?” She asked, causing JD to nod. Without a word, she found a piece of paper and a pen in JD’s room (somehow) and began her note, “Ram and I killed ourselves because we had to hide our gay love from a misapproving world.” Veronica said as she wrote.

 

“Perfect,” JD complimented. “Now, we need to get Kurt and Ram in the woods behind the school. Preferably naked to really make this suicide legit.”

 

“Are you expecting me to call them up and tell them I really want a threeway? What if they tell Duke right away??? What if when they get back up from being passed out, they tell the whole school they got to fuck Veronica Sawyer TWICE!!”

JD quickly kissed Veronica. “Veronica, Dear, that isn’t going to happen. No need to worry your pretty little head.”

Veronica took a deep breath and called the two boys.

 

“‘Yello?” Kurt answered. God, he sounded like a dad sometimes.

 

“Hey, Kurt. It’s Veronica…” Veronica tried to sound as seductive as possible. “Um.. How did you know it was always a fantasy of mine to have two guys at once?”

 

“Uh… lucky guess?”

 

“Well…. If you want it to come true, meet me in the woods behind the school. At dawn.” Veronica had enough. She left it at that and hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually tried to upload this literally 9 times and I decided fuck it I guess I gotta fix any issues in the gay rich text editor in ao3 rather than in google docs @ ao3 get yo shit together bitch
> 
> so I kinda wanna die??? anyways I got this fic completely finished, it just gotta upload chapters!!! i'm actually glad I've been working on it and I hope you are too! if you like the ending,, I'm considering a sequel with my HCs for after both these musicals :^)


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fun drinking game during this chapter read it, but everytime I spell mrs.fleming's name wrong/different, take a shot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: i'm gonna actually post all the chapters separate so i'm not spamming an ass load of chapters in one day :)
> 
> also me: hehe,,, upload time

Jeremy didn’t want to check the news when his squip told him to. He knew something bad had to be happening.

 

“Two football players from Middleburg High found dead in woods behind the high school. Police are led to believe this was a suicide pact between the boys, due to the suicide note found at the crime scene.” The news reporter explained.

 

“Why are so many people dying..?” Jeremy asked.

 

“Like I said. Human. Error. The only way to fix it is squips. I keep telling you, but you never listen.” His squip explained. Jeremy rolled his eyes.

 

“No. That’s bad.” Was all Jeremy said. “Listen, I have to get to school.”

 

“You act like I’m not inside your head.”

 

“Yeah, I like to believe that sometimes.”

 

Another memorial was held at the school for the two boys. JD and Veronica were nowhere to be found. Strange.

 

“So, Duke has a copy of Moby Dick, that she’s highlighted a lot of things in.” JD begins.

 

“No. I’m not doing anything like that again, you lied to me. You told me that everything was going to be fine!!! We aren’t going to kill them!! But you instead looked me in the face and lied.” Veronica was beyond angry.

 

“It’s not my fault there’s so many awful people in this school. Duke is the last one who needs to go, I swear. Maybe Mcnamara, but-” JD was cut off by Veronica yelling.

 

“NO! JD, I’m done. If this is all you’re going to go on about, find someone else to kill people with. I’m done with you. We’re breaking up.” Veronica got quiet towards the end.

 

JD was silent. “NO! No, we aren’t. You and I started this and -” Veronica suddenly pushed him, to which JD responded by pushing her.

 

“Fine, we’re damaged. Really damaged. But that does not make us wise. We’re not special, we’re not different. We don’t choose who lives or dies!!” Veronica explained. “Why can’t we just be normal?? See bad movies. Shit like that. Why can’t we be seventeen..?”  She asked.

 

JD seemed to be understanding, making Veronica feel relieved. The two made it to the auditorium just in time for a.. Pep rally?? They weren’t sure. Mrs.Flemming was giving a speech about sharing your anxieties and flaws, and everyone seemed really hyped. Until Heather M stepped up.

 

“Heather, get back in line!” Duke yelled, only to have Mrs.Flemming stop her.

 

“Go ahead, Heather. We’re all here for you.”

 

Heather went on to explain how she felt these suicides were her fault. She felt cursed. She said she began hating herself and how if she wasn’t good enough, she’d be thrown out like trash. She explained it as if she was on a lifeboat and someone had to go. She felt that person was her.

Instead of anyone feeling sympathy, Duke began laughing. Causing the rest of the students to laugh.

 

“What’s your damage, Heather?!” Duke started. “Where’s your school spirit?! You don’t deserve to wear our school colors!” Mrs.Flemming tried to stop Duke, but to no avail. She continued. “Why don’t you hop on your little ‘lifeboat’ and ride your gnarly wave over to Remmington?!” Duke was grinning as Mcnamara began to cry.

 

“Young lady, you are suspended!” Mrs.Flemming yelled to Heather Duke. Instead of comforting Mcnamara, Mrs.Flemming called for the news cameras to be turned off.

 

“Seriously?!” Veronica yelled. “Is that all you care about?! Heather Duke ruined a precious life and all you care about is cameras?!”

 

“I care about saving lives!” Mrs.Flemming tried to defend herself.

 

“Maybe we don’t want to be experimented on and patronized like bunny rabbits!” Veronica felt like she couldn’t control what she was saying.

 

Mrs.Flemming gasped. “I don’t patronize bunny rabbits!”

 

Heather Chandler suddenly appeared. “This is their big secret, Veronica. The adults are powerless.”

 

“You’re useless.” Veronica said quietly.

 

“We’re all alone in the ocean!”

 

“And all of you are idiots!” Veronica suddenly yelled.

 

JD noticed that Veronica couldn’t control herself and grabbed her shoulder. “Maybe you should sit down now.” Veronica pushed him away.

 

“You’re all monsters like Kurt and Ram and Heather and they didn’t kill themselves, I killed them!” Veronica screamed, the guilt getting to her. She looked around. Everyone was silent. “What… What do you guys think of that?” She asked quietly.

 

A few people looked at each other before Duke started laughing, causing everyone else to laugh. JD looked relieved. “People will say anything if they think it’ll make them popular!”

 

Veronica was stunned in disbelief until she remembered Mcnamara. She had ran off in the direction of the bathroom. Without second thought, Veronica ran as fast as she could to the bathroom.

 

Upon arriving, Veronica saw Heather downing a bottle of pills of some sort, but she couldn’t actually swallow them considering the way she dumped them in her mouth. “NO, NO, NO, NO!” Veronica screamed, knocking herself into Heather, knocking the two of them over.

 

Heather, with the pills still in her mouth whined, “Suicide is usually a private thing!” Though it was difficult to understand.

 

“Heather, if you were happy everyday of your life, you wouldn’t be human, you’d be a T.V show host.” Veronica added some humor to make Heather laugh a bit, which worked.

 

She spit out the pills and smiled at Veronica. “Thank you for coming after me.” She said, wiping tears from her eyes. Veronica didn’t have time to respond before being engulfed in a hug from Heather. Veronica began to question how Heather Mcnamara ended up in a group with Chandler and Duke. It didn’t make sense. Mcnamara was an angel, and deserved better friends.

 

After the whole thing was Heather was done, Martha had some thinking to do. She didn’t have anyone to talk to, not even Michael, who had been her shoulder to cry on during this whole Heathers experience. She thought about Ram and how he had been with her in kindergarten. She even had a dream where he took her on a pegasus ride over the city. Then she realized something… If she were to sleep and never wake up, she’d be in that dream forever. She would finally be happy. And that’s what she really needed. So, without a second thought, she wrote up a note explaining why she was about to do what she was going to do, got to the nearby bridge and stood there for a bit. Yes, her plan was to jump off, but she wanted to think a bit. Was this really worth it? As she began to try and think herself out of it, she stepped off before she went back on her decision. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like the Martha part at the end the best oof that has the most detail 
> 
> also I couldn't remember most of the lines bc,,, I was in English at the time and couldn't pull up an animatic or something right there bc my English teacher scares me


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I rly rushed this chapter i feel so it kinda doesnt make sense story wise and is all over the place,, but as i was writing it my fingers started to hurt while typing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're getting close to the end bois (which means,,, i tried to fit everything in at the end but when you get to the climax/resolution of two musicals, everything is gonna get hectic)

Martha’s suicide attempt wasn’t nearly as popularized as anyone else’s. Not even close. Which is a shame, really. She deserves the world and more, just like Mcnamara and everyone with a good heart at Middleburg. But life doesn’t go that way, now does it? No, instead, Veronica found out from Heather Duke on the night of the play. She wasn’t in it, nor did she really care about it, but she was going to see it for Jeremy’s sake. They hadn’t talked in a few days due to JD’s mess of everything, so she decided that she’d make it up to him by at least showing up to his play. 

 

Meanwhile, Jeremy was busy with his own issues. Such as his Squip trying to take over the school. This was the day of the play, starting with Jeremy giving one to Jenna. It had gone over well with her, beginning to prove the Squip’s point. Jeremy then attempted to give one to Christine. 

 

“Why would I want to change myself because a computer told me it would be cool?”

 

“Exactly! I- wait, what?” Jeremy was confused. Why wouldn’t Christine want someone telling her how to be cool and get whoever she wants? 

 

“I would be… really upset with myself if I did that. But have fun, Jeremy. I’m sure tons of other people at this school could use it.” She gave him a weak smile and walked off. 

 

Jeremy had just realized how right Christine was. It was sad to see people giving their free will away to computers. Jeremy left the box back in Rich’s locker, and went on his way. He couldn’t do this, despite his Squip screaming at him to do it. He refused to listen. 

 

By the time the play had come around, Jeremy’s father was worried about him. His son had been acting strange for a bit, but recently, it’d gotten worse. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he knew that something was off. So, he went to Michael. 

 

“Michael, I need you to help out Jeremy.” Was the first thing he said to him. 

 

“Mr.Heere, I don’t know if you know this, but Jeremy and I haven’t talked in weeks… He’s been ignoring me.” 

 

“Well,” Mr.Heere suttered. He was at a loss. “Try harder! There’s something up, and I can only count on you to help him out.” He pleaded. 

 

Michael thought for a second. “If… If I try harder to be his friend, and I help him out. You gotta promise me to try harder as a father. No offence, but you’ve been skipping out on him and you’ve always been really disconnected from him.”

 

Of course Mr.Heere knew this, and he promised to try harder as a parent. At that, Michael was left to find out how to help Jeremy on his own. 

 

Before Veronica could make it to the play, her parents stopped her. 

 

“Veronica, we’ve been so worried about you!! Your boyfriend, JD, stopped by, he told us everything.” Her mother began. 

 

Veronica knew something was up. “Everything..?”

 

“Your depression, thoughts of suicide?? Even your copy of Moby Dick!!” The concern in her mother’s voice definitely made Veronica afraid of what JD may be planning. 

 

Heather Chandler peered over Veronica’s shoulder as she opened the copy of the book, covered in highlights, circles underlines, and notes. She could almost feel Heather’s cold, dead hands. “He’s got your handwriting down cold.” She whispered to Veronica. She suddenly dropped the book. 

 

“Please, honey, talk to us.” Her mother pleaded. 

 

“No, you wouldn’t understand.” Veronica looked towards the stairs before looking out the window behind her mother and seeing a dark figure in the distance.

 

“Guess who’s right down the block?” The voices of Kurt, Ram and Heather echoed in her mind. 

 

“Your problems look like life and death.” Her mother continued, though Veronica wasn’t paying much attention. 

 

“Guess who’s climbing the stairs?” The voices again. How could Veronica get them to just go away?

 

“I promise they’re not.” Veronica’s mother put a hand on her daughter shoulder, only for Veronica to throw it off, and back up.

 

“Guess who’s picking your lock?” Were the voices getting louder? 

 

“You don’t know what my world looks like.” Veronica said quietly. 

 

“Time’s up, go say your prayers!” Veronica began sprinting up the stairs to get to her room as quick as possible. Something was totally up. 

 

The voices kept telling Veronica how crazy she was to try and hide. 

 

“TOO LATE!” They screamed, before lowering to a whisper. “He got in.” 

 

“Knock, knock!” JD. He was crawling through the window. Veronica’s thought was to lock herself in the closet. “Sorry for coming in through the window, dreadful etiquette, I know.” 

 

“Get out of my house!” Veronica screamed. She was absolutely terrified, but that would only get worse as JD began talking. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while i was re-reading this before i published it i realized how forced the pants song is in there, but you cant have a bmc fic without it yall


	12. Chapter twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more forced ending stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont worry,, only like two more chapters and its over

When the play began was when his Squip was really pushing his agenda. 

 

“Explain to me why everyone has Squips?!” Jeremy asked outloud, backstage. 

 

“Don’t ask me! Ask Jenna…” The Squip grinned. 

 

Jenna must’ve used Mountain dew and all the Squips Rich had to make the serum. 

 

“I can’t let anyone drink from that.” 

 

“Not so fast, Jeremy.” Mr.Reyes suddenly appeared, his eyes a hazy blue. “Let the kids be Squipped. They’re doing wonders. Plus, if I do this play and Squip all the kids, I can go all the way to broadway!” 

 

Jeremy had no idea what to do. Chloe drank some of the “mountain dew” while rehearsing, and Brooke had some too. Somehow, Jake had gotten his hands on it, and eventually, the whole cast was Squipped. Their Squips working together like a little hivemind. 

 

“This isn’t what I wanted.” Was all Jeremy said. 

 

“This is the only way for you to achieve what you want!” The Squip defended. 

 

“I’ll fight back! I’ll get drunk!” Jeremy grinned, thinking this was a master plan. 

 

“And I’ll be back when you’re sober. Unless you plan on staying wasted forever.” The Squip defended. How did it have a defense for everything?

 

“There has to be some way to shut you off! You’re a computer!” 

 

“I would stop there.” The Squip insisted. “ _ Psh,  _ you don’t want to end up like Rich.” The Squip said, without thinking. 

 

“Rich? What did he-” Jeremy suddenly remembered what Rich had been yelling about at the party before he burned down the house. He wanted Mountain Dew Red. 

 

“That’s it! Green mountain dew activates you, red shuts you off!” Jeremy grinned, thinking he had a fair chance. 

 

“Why do you think we had it discontinued? To get rid of me now, you’d need a time machine to the 1990s.” The Squip grinned, knowing he was right and that Jeremy had no fight here. 

 

“Or a friend who’s so old school he buys 90s soft drinks from the back room at Spencer’s gifts!” 

 

“Too bad you don’t have one of those anymore.” The Squip was still grinning, his arms crossed.

 

“Michael! Call Michael!” Jeremy didn’t know who he was yelling for. 

 

“I’m going to improve your life, Jeremy! If it means taking over the entire student body to do it!” The Squip yelled, seeming to get bigger as he did. 

 

Suddenly, the doors to the auditorium opened, causing a stream of light, almost like a spotlight to appear on whoever were to walk through the door.

 

“Michael makes an entrance!!” It was Michael. And, a few moments later, also Veronica. 

 

“Michael!!” Jeremy grinned and hugged his possibly ex best friend. “And Veronica.” He added. Veronica smiled. 

 

“Listen, I’d love to help you out here, I really would, but I got my own shit to deal with. Where’s the boiler room?” She asked. 

 

“Under the gym.” Jeremy told her. 

 

“Thanks. Good luck, guys.” She ran off. 

 

Jeremy separated from Michael. 

 

“See, I was in the audience thinking, ‘damn, this is really good for a school play.’ Then I was like, ‘THIS IS WAY TOO GOOD FOR A SCHOOL PLAY!”’ 

 

“Y-you came to see me in the play?” Jeremy smiled. For whatever reason, hearing that fact gave Jeremy a weird feeling in his stomach he hadn’t felt since the Halloween party while talking to Christine. 

 

“Even brought my own refreshments!” Michael pulled out a small bottle of Mountain Dew Red from his hoodie pocket. At least that hoodie did come to good use at some point. 

 

“Mountain dew red!”

 

“I told you I did my research.” Michael smiled smugly. His eyes landed on Jake. “Hey, Jake! This is going to sound weird, but if I hold down Jeremy, can you make him drink this mountain dew red?” He asked. 

 

Jake smiled his cool guy smile. “Actually, that doesn’t sound weird at all.” Suddenly, Jake froze in place. 

 

He dropped his crutches, apparently feeling nothing in his legs, and didn’t end up helping Michael after all. 

 

Meanwhile down in the boiler room, Veronica was dealing with JD. 

 

It started with her pulling a gun on him, only for him to pull a gun out as well. 

 

After explaining the bomb situation, JD began speaking of the future of Middleburg. “People are going to see the ashes of Middleburg high, and think, there’s a school that self destructed not because society didn’t care, but because that school, was society! The only place Heathers and Marthas can get along is in heaven!” He was screaming at this point. Instead of being afraid Veronica spoke softly to him. 

 

“I wish your mom had been a little stronger. I wish she’d stayed around a little longer.” Veronica’s voice got louder as she spoke. “I wish your dad were good, I wish grownups understood! I wish we’d met before they’d convince you life is war!” Veronica held her hand out, giving JD another chance. A different fate. “I wish you’d come with me!” She was in tears. It looked like JD considered it for a second. 

 

“I wish I had more TNT.” He decided that would be his fate. Veronica tackled him, telling him to give her the bomb. As they fought, Veronica kept the gun in mind. 

 

The noise between the basketball game upstairs, and the faint noises from the auditorium made this scene much more chaotic than it already was. So much was happening, Veronica’s thoughts were so flooded that Veronica’s first instinct was to curl her finger on the trigger and apply pressure. 


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> second to last chapter!!! also a real short one because i wanted to wrap up Veronicas story before i wrapped up jeremy's.

Veronica stepped a few steps from JD. There was now bright, crimson red on JD’s side. Veronica caused that, and she knew it. JD, without speaking, took the bomb from where it was, brushed past Veronica and began walking. Without disturbing the silence, Veronica followed, curious as to where he was going. 

 

They made it to the football field, making Veronica realize something. JD didn’t know how to defuse the bomb. Either that, or he didn’t want to. Maybe he wanted to die with the school, and if not the school, then just in general. She realized that if she didn’t love him, he’d rather be dead than live knowing Veronica hated him for what he’d done. JD began to speak. Expressing his love for Veronica, causing Veronica to protest, telling him there’s another way. This doesn’t need to end the way JD was planning. But, it was too late. The bomb went off. Ringing stayed in Veronica’s ears for a few minutes before everyone had left the building. 

 

Well, most people from the auditorium seemed to be inside, but that isn’t what’s important. 

 

“What happened! We heard a loud noise.” Heather Mcnamara said to Veronica, genuine concern lacing her voice. 

 

“You look like hell.” Was all Heather Duke could muster up. 

 

“Just got back!” Veronica said, fake cheer in her voice. Without hesitating, Veronica gave Duke a swift kiss on the cheek and stole Heather’s precious red scrunchie. Speaking of which, she hadn’t heard Heather, Kurt or Ram nearly all night. That, and her head hurt. Weird. 

 

Veronica explained how the hierarchy in the school was going to stop. Everyone could get along. Veronica even stopped to invite Martha for movie night, a once weekly tradition that had stopped, and Veronica genuinely missed it. Martha agreed, even suggesting to invite Michael and Jeremy. Veronica agreed to that idea. 

 

After her conversation with Martha, Veronica held her hand out for Heather Mcnamara to take, which she did, gladly. The three girls smiled, Veronica even inviting Heather Duke into their circle, who declined. 

 

The ambulance and police arrived at the school, police questioning people about the bomb, and the ambulance taking kids out of the school. Veronica recognized Jeremy, Jake, Chloe, Brooke, Christine, and Jenna. Michael walked out, a little shaken. 

 

Veronica approached him while he was sitting on a curb with a blanket, drinking some Mountain Dew. “Hey.” Veronica greeted. She realized she really never spoke to Michael. Martha arrived shortly after. 

 

“Hey guys.” Michael sounded so tired. 

 

“What happened in there?” Martha asked, concerned. 

 

“The Squips are gone. They all created one hivemind. It was really weird.” Michael explained softly. 

 

“Wait.. Then why’d they pass out?” Veronica asked. She had a Squip, why hadn’t she passed out like the others?

 

“I dunno, probably because of the proximity of the Squips? Not sure.” Michael shrugged. “I’m gonna see Jeremy as soon as possible. I’m worried about him.” 

 

Martha grinned. “Aw!! You still love him!” 

 

Michael smiled a bit. Instead of yelling about how he isn’t gay for Jeremy, Michael softly said, “Yeah, I really do.” 


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE LAST CHAPTER!!! Also pretty short, but I think it wraps things up the way I intended

The next day, once everything in Veronica’s life was more clear than it had been in months (though it hadn’t completely cleared up, not even close. The police were on her ass about the bomb, and she was still worried they’d find her guilty of the murders of heather and kurt and ram. That, and she had the worst nightmare of her life the night before.) her, Michael and Martha went to visit Jeremy in the hospital. He was pretty fine, according to Michael, who had gotten there as soon as the visiting hours started, but they just kept him there overnight just in case. In fact, Jeremy was the only one who had to stay overnight. He seemed to have the worst head trauma out of the rest of the cast. 

 

Veronica and Martha headed to the hospital together, getting Jeremy a pop figure of some character from a video game he liked. They had to go through the hospital, Martha staying close. Veronica assumed the hospital reminded Martha of when she tried to kill herself, and she didn’t like being there. They got to Jeremy’s room, to find Jeremy who was already getting ready to go.

 

“Oh, hey guys! I’m actually getting discharged in a second.” Jeremy explained. “Er, well, I already was, but now I can actually leave.”

 

“You head still hurt?” Veronica asked. Jeremy shook his head. 

 

“No, not really. Well, I mean it does a bit. But, I’m fine. If that’s what you’re asking.” 

 

Martha gasped. “By the way! Veronica and I got you a gift!” Martha held out the pop figure to Jeremy, who hesitated before taking it, a grin on his face. 

 

“Oh, jeez, thanks guys.” Jeremy looked the happiest he had in months, which made Veronica thankful. 

 

“See, what’d I tell you, dude?” Michael nudged his friend, a smile on his face as well. 

 

“We’d better get going. You guys wanna go out for breakfast or something?” Jeremy asked the three other teens in the room. They began to walk out of the hospital. 

 

Veronica shrugged. “I’m down. What were you guys thinking?” 

 

“Dennys.” Was Michael’s immediate response. 

 

“You only like Dennys because their Tumblr makes you laugh.” Jeremy rolled his eyes. 

 

“Okay, but, go to dennys are you okay dot wtf and you’ll love dennys just as much as I do.” Michael grinned. 

 

Veronica was glad that they had a friend group now. They would probably be fine with Veronica including Heather, considering how good hearted she is. 

 

Of course, though the friend group had begun, their problems weren’t nearly over. To start, Jeremy couldn’t be near most technology. Computers were a hassle for him, all because of the squip. So was mountain dew. He couldn’t drink it anymore, and even seeing it in stores made him jump a bit. Michael was there to help him every step of the way though, making it a bit more tolerable. Then Veronica had nightmares every night. Seeing JD exploding on that football field, imagining the pain he had felt in that short amount of time. Veronica still had a soft spot in her heart that loved him, and she blamed herself for everything. Maybe she could have genuinely changed him, given him a different fate. When in reality, there was nothing she could’ve done. Veronica also had issue with slushies, which really contradicted Michael’s love for them. He cut back on them for her sake, though, even if she told him it was fine. Then Martha couldn’t be near hospitals or bridges. And Heather Duke was still an issue to her. She hated being hear her, but she was definitely better around Duke than Mcnamara was. In fact, even if Duke made Mcnamara cry almost everytime she was near her, she was still able to slap Duke across the face one time. Only for Mcnamara to cry right after. But at least she got her revenge for what she had done to her. 

 

In the end, things were chill, and things ended up being just beautiful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall let me know if you want a sequel of this without me having to steal lines from the musicals lmao


End file.
